| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau by Honore de Balzac: and you haven't the loins to run out again. There's a thousand francs;
just let me take it in hand and manage the affair.' Very good! The
banker then convokes the traders: 'My friends, let us go to work:
write a prospectus! Down with humbug!' On that they get out the
hunting-horns and shout and clamor,--'One hundred thousand francs for
five sous! or five sous for a hundred thousand francs! gold mines!
coal mines!' In short, all the clap-trap of commerce. We buy up men of
arts and sciences; the show begins, the public enters; it gets its
money's worth, and we get the profits. The pig is penned up with his
potatoes, and the rest of us wallow in banknotes. There it all is, my
good sir. Come, go into the business with us. What would you like to
Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Ursula by Honore de Balzac: asked for a few moments interview in the Chinese pagoda, requesting
that they might be entirely alone.
"Can any one hear us?" he asked.
"No one," replied Minoret.
"Monsieur, my character must be known to you," said the abbe,
fastening a gentle but attentive look on Minoret's face. "I have to
speak to you of serious and extraordinary matters, which concern you,
and about which you may be sure that I shall keep the profoundest
secrecy; but it is impossible for me to do otherwise than give you
this information. While your uncle lived, there stood there," said the
priest, pointing to a certain spot in the room, "a small buffet made
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Euthydemus by Plato: words, Euthydemus and Dionysodorus, but there is nothing that I admire more
than your magnanimous disregard of any opinion--whether of the many, or of
the grave and reverend seigniors--you regard only those who are like
yourselves. And I do verily believe that there are few who are like you,
and who would approve of such arguments; the majority of mankind are so
ignorant of their value, that they would be more ashamed of employing them
in the refutation of others than of being refuted by them. I must further
express my approval of your kind and public-spirited denial of all
differences, whether of good and evil, white or black, or any other; the
result of which is that, as you say, every mouth is sewn up, not excepting
your own, which graciously follows the example of others; and thus all
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